Amy Frazier - Independence Day

Nick winced. Although he didn’t pause to look over his shoulder, he could imagine how she looked, barefoot and determined, with that…that…toga flapping.

It was just his luck that Eban Hoffman, one of the local lobstermen, stood at the hardware store gas pumps, filling his pickup, watching with taciturn interest every movement on the square. Six hounds in the truck bed stood at attention as they spotted Chessie, who padded up alongside Nick.

“Would you slow down?” she asked, breathless, clutching fabric to her chest. “My sheet’s unraveling.”

Sure enough, great swaths of the makeshift robe flapped like pennants in the brisk coastal breeze. She was in danger of exposing more than shoulders and arms.

What did she have on under that thing?

Eban’s dogs, excited by the movement, began to bark and pace the truck bed, eager to get out and join the fun. Their owner, more interested in the drama playing out before him than in controlling his dogs, stood staring and scratching his head.

Nick refused to prolong this public entertainment. With authority, he swept Chessie into his arms and began marching for the privacy of home, the sheet billowing out behind them.

“Oh, my,” Chessie said as if this was just the afternoon’s activity she’d had in mind.

Not about to waste breath explaining to her that his actions did not in any way constitute romance or a harbinger of marital changes to come, he picked up his pace. He simply wanted to get her off the square before disaster struck.

Too late.

“Come back he-ah this instant!” Eban shouted.

Nick heard the playful canine whines, heard the scrabble of claws on asphalt, heard the jingle of rabies tags before the dogs surrounded them. Yapping, jumping, snapping and intent on seizing whatever loose fabric they could reach in a frenzied game of tug o’ war, they probably hadn’t had this much fun since that crate of spider crabs got loose at the pier.

Chessie shrieked as two dogs, their toothy grip firm in a corner of trailing sheet, their eight combined feet planted in the roadside grass, threatened by sheer dog-headedness to unwrap her.

Nick broke into a jog.

Just as Eban and Hamilton Quick, owner of the hardware store, caught up with them, one of the dogs, leaped up and snapped. Instead of coming away with a prized hunk of fabric, he sank his teeth into Nick’s left buttock.

WERE HER PARENTS TRYING to screw up her life totally?

It sure seemed that way.

Having escaped to Keri’s room, Gabriella wanted to disappear from the face of the earth. Pushing herself back into the mound of stuffed animals on her friend’s bed, she tried to erase the awful memory of them in the square just now. Tried to focus on the perfectly normal trip to the mall beforehand. Focus on her new flavored lip gloss. On running into Danny Aiken, Keri’s boyfriend. On Danny saying how phat Gabriella’s haircut was…

Not on the ride home when—excruciating minutes ago— Mrs. Weiss had driven into the square and there they were: Dad carrying Mom. Mom wearing a sheet. That dog taking a bite of Dad’s butt. Everybody running out of the hardware store. Yelling. Pointing.

At her parents.

They looked like they were trying out for some lame reality show.

Now, as she heard Mrs. Weiss’s SUV pull out of the driveway below, taking Mom and Dad to the emergency room, she tried to think how she could make sure her parents’ behavior didn’t cross her new friends’ radar.

Her new cool friends, thanks to Keri.

“Parents can be so…gross.” Keri wasn’t helping matters. If she thought Mom and Dad were gross, what would Danny think? Or Baylee Warner? Or Margot Hensley? Or anyone else in Danny’s group. And now Keri’s group by association.

Gabriella wanted this new crowd to be hers, as well. No such luck with her parents acting whack.

“Do you hear what I’m saying?” Keri was right in her face. “You have got to, like, prove you’re not just as weird.”

“As who?”

“As your parents.” Keri made a face. “Wake up. You need damage control here.”

As if she needed to be told.

“This is our freshman year coming up, Gabs. Do you want to be in, or do you want to be out?”

She’d been so close to being out for the past year since moving to Pritchard’s Neck. Keri had been her only real friend. Now Keri had moved into the winner’s circle as Danny’s girlfriend, and Gabriella knew Keri was trying not to leave her behind.

What scared Gabriella more than anything in the world was the thought of being left behind.

“Well?” Keri poked her in the ribs.

“Do I even have to answer that?”

“You’d better come up with some answers before we both find ourselves on the outside looking in.” There was something like fear in Keri’s eyes.

Gabriella knew Keri was on probation. Danny could only bring her so far into his circle. The group had to cast its approval, too. And if the group wanted to test Keri’s loyalty by having her dump a former friend—a friend with even the whiff of geek or weirdo about her—well… The thought made Gabriella queasy.

“What can I do?”

“Make sure you’re a whole lot cooler than your family.”

Gabriella tried to bury herself in the stuffed animals again, but Keri yanked her upright. “The hair’s a start,” she said. “Brilliant even. Danny said so.”

“The hair will be history by the time school starts. Remember the dress code?”

“Yeah. Your dad’s dress code. Could it get any worse than your father as principal?”

“My mom, Fourth-of-July nutcase.”

“Your dad, dog food.”

Her dad on the way to the emergency room in Mrs. Weiss’s SUV because his Volvo was AWOL and Mom’s Mini Cooper was too tiny for him to lie on his stomach.

“Hey, Danny wasn’t in the square, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Gabriella pointed out in weak defense.

“No, but Kurt Ryan’s dad was coming out of the hardware. And Baylee’s mom works in the E.R. How soon do you figure before everyone knows?”

Gabriella pulled the comforter over her head. “I wish I was dead.”

“There’s no time for that.” Keri pulled the cover aside. “You gotta think how to keep far away from all this before you get blackballed.”

“How are we going to do that?”

Keri raised one eyebrow, and Gabriella realized there didn’t have to be a we. This was her problem. Keri could wash her hands of it.

But Keri softened. Maybe it was because they were such good friends, or maybe Keri needed someone lower on the totem pole than her. “For the summer the hair’s a good start. But we gotta keep people thinking you’re out there.”

Gabriella didn’t feel out there. Not even with her new haircut. She felt miserable. Saddled with a lame family. And in over her head.

Keri jumped off the bed and began examining her face in her dresser mirror. “A boyfriend would be huge.”

Gabriella didn’t feel ready for a boyfriend. That Keri had met Danny two weeks ago at the beach and had chased him till he’d given her the time of day made Gabriella’s jaw drop. She didn’t want to think what Keri might’ve done to make Danny so loyal so quick. No, the idea of a boyfriend made Gabriella nervous.

“Boyfriends take time,” she replied. “I need something quick.”

“You gotta be fearless. You gotta act as if you don’t care what your parents think.”

Easy for Keri to say. She was an only child. Her mom treated her more like a girlfriend than a daughter, and her dad treated her like a princess.

“You suggesting I start smoking and hanging around street corners?” Gabriella asked sarcastically.

“No,” Keri replied, serious. “Everybody smokes and hangs around street corners. You need to be awesome. A standout. Plus, you don’t need to waste attitude on just anybody. Save it for when you’re hanging around Baylee or Margot or Kurt.”